Blogtober 24

Its a beautiful Saturday, and the windows are open.  The day started out rainy and windy, (still windy) and on the coolish side of warm.  Sweatshirt weather.  With peek-a-boo sunshine.

I went grocery shopping this morning and when I came home a local 4H group was raking our front yard! Wasn't THAT nice?  They are going around the community doing their community work and they wouldn't take anything but drinks of water but we handed them tootsie roll pops too. 

While we visited with them on the front porch as they raked, we noticed a tulip bulb that I missed.  And then another.  And another.  I KNOW I didn't forget to plant all those.  The kids started looking for them (kinda like an Easter Egg hunt at Halloween!) and found just about all of the 3 dozen or so of the ones I planted the other day on top of the ground and all the empty holes I planted them in.  Something didn't apparently like them planted!

It seems that whatever dug them up wasn't after them.  So that made me think WHY?

As I went to the garage to get my shovel and my kneeler pad and gloves, I almost grabbed the bulb fertilizer bag that I used the first time.  A light bulb went off.  I usually buy regular bone meal, but this bag was different, (not sure why I bought it instead unless it was all they had?)  It said ORGANIC.  (Note to self: bone meal is ORGANIC, so if that is why I bought it, its a moot point!)  So I'm thinking it probably has some food qualities to it, and that was what the animal(s) wanted.

I was sore the day after I put those in.  It hadn't rained in weeks and the ground was hard.  Like I said before, it was raining this morning, and the ground WAS a little softer, if not muddier and messier, but I planted those bulbs ONE MORE TIME!  MINUS the ORGANIC fertilizer.  Hopefully they will now STAY planted.  Guess we won't know til Spring.  But know I am still in for one more sore day again tomorrow. 

In the words of Roseanne Rosanna Danna, its always somethin'!

Stay tuned.

Blogtober 21

Eye candy.

It doesn't just mean who you have on your arm, you know... it could mean this:

Or this:

 Or this and this and this....

None of these pics are my creations.  All of these are pics I have found on the web that I just like looking at. They give me pause.  They make me stop and just enjoy.  I know that there are people that took these pics, and yes, if I knew who they were I would give them kudos.  But I don't.  I hope they know that their work is in a special folder that I look in on a bad day.  One that I go to for creative inspiration.  One full of color and uplifting feelings.  If I were a published artist, and even if they didn't remember my name, it would be nice to know that something I did, makes someone feel good every time they look at it.  This is not to say that I would want someone to steal my photo to claim as their own for fun and profit.  That is lying and wrong on all levels.
I call it Eye Candy:  stuff I like to look at.  A collection, an arsenal, if you will, of feel good pics.
How can anyone have a problem with that?

What does eye candy make you think of?
Stay tuned...

Blogtober 20

Its getting to be bed time, and I am sitting by the open window, as its 70 degrees and there is a sprinkle of rain every now and then.  Its warmed up a bit and I am going to soak it in as much as I can.  I don't want to go to bed because it is supposed to get cooler the rest of the week.

It was a beautiful day.  I planted spring bulbs.  Tulips to be specific.  Bright pink, bright purple and a different pink.  Kind of like:

maybe the purple would be a little brighter.  I know me.  I know after a long winter, the brighter the color I see, the happier I will be.  I am planting some happiness for a time in the future that I know I will need it.  Thats what spring bulbs do!

I made a salad dish for about 40 people who will be attending a funeral dinner tomorrow for the local Legions commander.  I don't go to the meetings so when I am called upon, I try to help.


And after a long day at work, I am spent.  Its time to decompress.  Have a lovely day tomorrow and count your blessings!  I know today that I am!

Stay tuned.

Blogtober nineteen

Look at what this lady did with leaves.  I was married in October (30+years ago) and if I was going to do it again, I would want this bouquet!  Isn't it different and lovely? 
Art in all forms...  Creativity...  everywhere!  
Just thought I'd share.  I thought it was wonderful.
Stay tuned.

 

Blogtober 18

 Another thing I saw on facebook and is the truth.  I just don't get that shoe thing. 

Haven't had much time for art, and nothing new to report.  So I guess I will say...

Stay tuned.

Blogtober 17

Dang!  Missed ANOTHER one!

The challenge of Blogtober is to blog everyday.  Well, there are some days that there just isn't anything to report and life is pretty busy these days, so I am lucky to have five minutes as it is.  SO, that being said, my challenge is to do the best I can with it.

Well, I delivered the baby shower gift and she loved it. YAY!

I saw this on facebook (thanks to Jennifer Allwood) and thought I would share it, because I thought it was in tune with my handle here.  Paint Warrior.  I will have to ruminate on that one...  perhaps I would be more like a Paint Warrior Wannabe, as I am not able to paint for a LIVING.  But she sure looks like shes having fun!

Stay tuned!

Blogtober 15

Dang.  Missed another day so far.  But, nothing hurt. 

What do you do when someone hands you something to paint because they want to give it as a gift,   the design seems simple enough,  seems like a piece of cake, so sure! you agree to do it...

Then you find out that you're painting a cylinder.  Made of cloth.  That collapses.  With wrinkles.  How do you iron that? Should you iron that?  Whatever you make on this canvas should not be painted thick enough to break off the cloth, and should be able to move.  Light weight paint right?

Airbrush. The lightest paint I know.

So, Lets hang this cylinder up, then weight it down so that the wrinkles hang out. To get nice color, continuous, around this tube, you have to allow it to turn as you work, to make the continuous lines.  This works pretty good.

Until the subject matter needs to be done, which happened to be some characters.  Its been awhile since I airbrushed, and it felt good to pick up this medium again.  I think I would have done a decent job, had the cylinder not decided to turn as the air comes out of my gun.  I am a two handed airbrusher: two hands steadying themselves.  Now I am minus one because I have to hold the tube to keep it from rotating.

Why didn't you block it from turning, you ask?  Well, anyone who has used an airbrush knows that putting down the airbrush in the middle of painting promotes clogs and stoppages.  Thin paint shooting through pinholes with large amounts of air which is drying it as fast as it sprays, waiting for two or three minutes while I try to find something and rig it up to work, would have stopped this session pretty much right there.  I didn't have anything handy at that point in time to do so.  If I would have found something, I would have to totally disassemble the airbrush, clean it all out, reassemble it and come back a half hour later.  Doable, but I didn't do it.

I wasn't satisfied.  I thought I could buy another one of these canvas hampers and try again.  Well, that would not be profitable, and I have done art enough to know that perhaps, this project was in an ugly middle stage.  Many times I will get half way through a painting or drawing and find myself ready to tear it up and quit.  If I don't, I am rewarded with something much better than what I imagined would have come out of the ugly duckling I saw earlier.  So....

I may have outlined the characters in airbrush, but I finished them by hand.  Yes, the paint is thicker. Yes, the whole tube is wrinklier.  Do I like it? I do, but I am not confident enough about it being good enough to give as a present.  Do I think she will like it??  I hope she is kind because it wasn't an easy project.

I would love to show it here, but I hate to show gifts before the recipient sees it.  At any rate, its done, I don't believe I would want to do it again, and I am handing it back to her tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

Stay tuned!